Last year CBS debuted a new series starring Kevin James as a gentle—if a little dumb—schlub who’s just trying to relax on Long Island with his family. Though that sounds a lot like the long-running CBS series King of Queens, there were myriad differences between the two shows: 1) Kevin James was a dopey deliveryman named Doug in King of Queens, and he’s a dopey cop named Kevin in Kevin Can Wait, 2) Kevin James lives in Queens in King of Queens, and he lives on Long Island in Kevin Can Wait, 3) Kevin James is married to a woman who’s too good for him (played by Leah Remini) in King of Queens, and is married to a woman who’s too good for him (played by Erinn Hayes) in Kevin Can Wait. See? Completely different.
But even though Kevin Can Wait was the most successful new comedy on television last year, CBS now thinks they shouldn’t have tried to fix something that wasn’t broken. USA Today reports the second season of the hit show will be retooled, meaning they’re killing off Kevin’s wife “to make room” for a character played by Leah Remini.
Said CBS VP Thom Sherman:
“Obviously, the chemistry between Kevin and Leah was amazing in the stunt episode(s) we did at the end of last season, and we decided we want to continue that.”
While I feel a little bad for Erinn Hayes, I can’t help but love this story. As a major network strategy, “We’re Just Going to Do King of Queens Again” is almost beyond parody (not to mention funnier than a similar 2017 strategy of theirs: “We’ll Make Sheldon Young.”) It is a joke cut from 30 Rock for being too unbelievable. It is peak laziness. And it will make everyone involved so much money.